The Walking Dead, Frank Darabont and Why You Should Care
By End_Boss 14 Comments
I have such a huge boner right now.
No seriously. Look at it! It's ridiculous. What could inspire such titillating arousal, you ask? Well, a lot of things, but today it's a very specific thing. Take a gander, if you will, to the left of this page where my avatar is. That, my friend, is a zombie. Not just any zombie mind you, but one Rick Grimes, the baddest ass of all badass small-town Kentucky cops with a wife and little 'un. He's also the star of The Walking Dead, an inimitable series of graphic novels by one Robert Kirkman of Image Comics fame. Now I know I've talked a lot of mess about TWD in the past, so I won't get too into it now, other than to say that it has the same appeal for me that the 2004 television reboot of Battlestar Galactica had: despite their settings and how easy it would have been to turn either of these franchises into a camped-up mess, both titles offer stellar character drama laid over a tense background of death and tragedy that leads to stories that, while at turns unsettling and even downright gut-wrenching, are utterly captivating, seizing you from the first few issues (or episodes, as the case may be) with an unrelenting, ironclad grip.So why am I telling you all of this? Well, according to HyperGeek, a Canadian comic book enthusiast's site, American cable channel AMC will begin filming a six-episode live-action arc of The Walking Dead to be directed by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile). Robert Kirkman will be intimately involved in the directing process.
Hallelujah.
I've been hearing rumors about The Walking Dead coming to the silver screen for a while, and I'll admit that for the most part I was terrified: what if it was terrible? What if it was downright unwatchable, TWD's answer to The Real Ghostbusters? Well, the possibility is still there, especially without an announced cast, but now that Darabont is on-board, I feel a little better about the show's chances. With filming beginning in June of this year, I imagine we'll be finding out sooner rather than later.Thanks for reading,
End_Boss.